OKPEBHOLO’S ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE

AUSTIN ISIKHUEMEN reckons that the Edo State governor is doing exceedingly well in infrastructure development

I saw the post The Ukpenu-Ujiamen-Ehor Road Contract on social media and immediately, I commented as follows:

That’s an excellent move. That axis has suffered untold hardship for as long as I can remember! Well done on this your excellency, the marginalization of those towns is over, and this road will open up large swathes of fertile farmlands to address food security in Edo Central and beyond.

Well played Sir!

As someone unafraid to offer constructive criticism and with predilection for praise of government’s worthy strides, I thought I needed to interrogate this further as well as present my take on the road infrastructure focus of Governor Monday Okpebholo in the previously marginalized Central senatorial district of Edo State. Here goes:

For whatever reasons, previous governments in Edo State have deliberately neglected road infrastructure development in Esanland. From one government that could only play politics of tokenism by tarring a few kilometers of a hardly-used road around late Chief Anenih’s Uromi country home near Arue just to spite the sage, to the one whose era was cut short to the immediate past government that handed over to Senator Monday Okpebholo, Esanland have been an area deliberately marginalized on road infrastructure.

While there were a number of expensive well-paved dual-carriage ways with streetlights in Edo South and Edo North, as well as numerous reconstructed roads across the same two districts, Esan was treated as an orphan! She was totally ignored and made to feel that its electoral weight was not worth any dividend of our democratic governance. The argument seemed to be that once you have the votes of Edo South and Edo North in the kitty, you were home and dry, so let the Esans cry all they want!

The Obaseki administration decided that the situation was no longer tenable and that the cry for Esan Agenda by Esan-Okpa and other numerous voices including that of traditional rulers in Esanland had merit! A policy to ensure Esan produced the successor to Governor Obaseki was activated! The rest is history and Senator Monday Okpebholo is now in the saddle.

While not neglecting Edo South – building two massive flyovers – and Edo North – giving attention to marginalized Akoko-Edo – the governor has given due attention to road infrastructure development in Edo Central. His single-minded focus is worthy of praise and even his critics have been pleasantly surprised and impressed by his strides in a mere year and two months as governor.

This recently announced contract award for the Ukpenu-Emuhi-Ujiamen-Ehor road is significant beyond merely providing an access road to previously neglected communities. It is connecting two local government areas – Esan West and Ohunmwuode – as well as providing an additional connecting link between Edo Central and Edo South. Ehor, with a huge Esan population will benefit from the massive commercial and farming opportunities that the construction of this road will energize!

The axis where this road will serve has huge fertile agricultural lands with massive potential for food production and eventual industrialization. Farmers, who hitherto, were unable to evacuate their harvests due to bad roads that only “okada” could navigate would now evacuate their crops using lorries and other vehicles. New markets are surely going to develop in this axis where farm crops will be traded and evacuated to the cities thereby addressing the food security needs of the state and the nation. Do not be surprised that lorries will be coming from as far as Lagos and the northern states to buy reasonably priced, fresh, agricultural produce.

The people of that axis are set to witness prosperity like they have never seen since Nigeria’s independence! I am not kidding. Being an agrarian community, their economy will be transformed by this single move by Senator Monday Okpebholo. This for me is at once visionary, humanitarian, redress of a long-standing injustice as well as economic empowerment of a previously castrated people only remembered during electioneering campaigns! Now, the people of Ukpenu (Ekpoma), Emuhi, Ujianmen and Ehor can feel the benefits of voting for the very first time since 1999.

I will be doing other pieces on road infrastructure development in Esanland in the next few weeks. The objective is to throw light on an area of critical importance to the people of Esan and the relief Governor Monday Okpebholo government is delivering to alleviate poverty by providing opportunities for economic empowerment through critical infrastructure development.

On this, the truth must be told: Monday Okpebholo has done extremely well within so short a time! He looks poised to do more since he still has almost three years left of this first tenure.

auxtynisi@gmail.com